17.
Emily wondered if she’d put too much soap in her wash tub. As she stomped up and down on the dirty clothes, the bubbles overflowed the tub and spread out across her back lawn, looking like a snow drift.
Bulla, bulla,..., bulla, bulla,..., bulla, bulla,...
Music started up around the front of the house.
Bulla, bulla,..., bulla, bulla,..., bulla, bulla,...
‘What is going on?’ she said, and wrapping a towel around her soapy body, walked through the house leaving a trail of bubbly footprints.
Bulla, bulla, I went to a party, bulla, bulla, tap, tap, tap, bulla, bulla,...
She was greeted by the sight of two young anodes wearing Hawaiian shirts and kicking a football to each other.
Bulla, bulla,…header,...bulla, bulla,...knee tap,...bulla, bulla,...header,..., bulla, bulla,...
Seeing Emily approaching, one of them turned to her while the other continued to deftly juggle the ball, not letting it touch the ground.
‘Miss Emily Taylor?’
‘Yes,’ she answered, suspiciously.
‘A delivery for you,’ he said handing her a courier package. ‘Please sign here.’
She signed the delivery note. The anode went back to dancing about to the music and juggling the ball with his friend, then he clicked his fingers and anodes, ball and the beat box with its bulla-bullas, disappeared.
Emily stood on the spot, bemused. Two young anodes, rather handsome young anodes, wearing bright Hawaiian shirts and kicking a football around had just delivered a parcel from Earth and disappeared. A gentle breeze blew bubbles off her legs and they floated way, dancing in the eddies.
She shook her head, shrugged her shoulders and walked over to the sofa, reading the label on the parcel and leaving more soapy footprints.
Miss Emily Taylor, Camillo AS3752, Asteroid Belt.
She was just about to sit down when....
Bulla bulla, bulla bulla, tap tap, bounce, kick, bulla bulla.
They were back!
They kicked the ball across to Emily. She trapped it with her foot, gave it a couple of little kicks up in the air and booted it back. The taller one of the two caught the ball and with a snap of his fingers turned the beat box down. Striding across to Emily, he said, ‘Hi, I’m Jesus,’ and shook Emily’s hand vigorously, then turning to his slightly shorter and younger looking companion, he added, ‘and this is Azziz. We’re God’s sons.’
‘Lovely to meet you,’ said Emily, looking into their eyes. Jesus’s were brown with gold flecks, while Azziz’s were bright green. ‘And I love your shirts!’ Azziz wore a designer one with large dark blue hibiscuses printed on light blue linen, Jesus a wonderfully tacky one with orange sunsets and palm trees on black polyester.
‘We wore then specially,’ said Azziz. ‘If you would like to open your package, we’ll finish your washing.’
Not waiting for an answer, the two of them vanished into the house, arriving back a moment later carrying the wooden tub full of bubbles and dragging the hose behind them. The music turned itself back up and they danced about as they washed, rinsed and wrung out Emily’s laundry.
She sat on the sofa and carefully opened the parcel. She took the labels off her new clothes then went into the house and put on the pink jeans and a yellow T-shirt criss-crossed with red zigzag lines.
‘I hear you do a good breakfast,’ said Azziz. ‘We’ve bought bacon.’
‘Does scrambled eggs with bacon and baked beans on the side sound good?’ asked Emily.
‘Sounds great!’
‘Tea or coffee,’ she yelled after them as they headed out the back to hang out the laundry.
Ping!
An espresso machine appeared on the kitchen bench.
‘I guess it’s coffee then,’ said Emily to the cooker, who was sitting smugly in the corner, boiling the kettle.
The bacon was sizzling away when they came back. They’d changed to human form and looked ever so handsome with their long hair and sparkling eyes. Emily kept looking at them. She hoped they didn’t think she was rude but just couldn’t help herself.
Azziz flicked a couple of coffee capsules her way. She missed, she was too distracted.
‘It’s a pod type machine,’ said Azziz, picking up the capsules. ‘It’s my souvenir from Earth. I’ll bring lots of pods, you’ll probably be seeing quite a bit of us.’
They had breakfast outside in the spring sunshine, sat around Zeus’s table. It was starting to give problems and was stuck a little higher at one end than the other, any higher and everything would slide off. As it was, the cups and plates stayed put, but only just.
Kicking off with freshly squeezed orange juice, they quickly moved on to bacon and eggs with beans, garnished with a sprig of parsley from Emily’s herb garden and lashings of black pepper, ground chunky. Jesus and Azziz chased it down with strong espressos, while Emily washed hers down with milky tea.
‘That was good!’ said Azziz, making a second cup of espresso for himself and his brother. He sat back into the comfort of the old sofa and carefully rolled himself a cigarette, then shut his eyes in pleasure as he drew the smoke in and puffed it out into the cool morning air.
After a few minutes of silence, Emily said, ‘You went a little over the top, rising from the dead! Tut, tut!’
Azziz laughed, ‘I couldn’t resist it. It’ll take Dad a thousand years to forgive me!’
He took another sip of his espresso and sucked deeply on his cigarette, ‘Dad was right about preaching to the teroids. I’ve learnt my lesson. It’s not a good idea to get killed when you’re transfigured. The pain was incredible.’
Jesus nodded his head in agreement.
‘Your Dad doesn’t seem to like you very much.’
‘He loves us,’ said Azziz. ‘Well as much as an anode can, but despairs of us. While he has dedicated much of his life to trying to save the world, he sees us as happy-go-lucky lay-abouts which doesn’t sit well with the anode view of life. Whatever we do, it’s wrong. We just can’t seem to please him.’
‘If only he would accept us the way we are,’ said Jesus. ‘We’re proud of him. Suez Dog holds the lowest post of any on the anodes of his generation, yet he does it with pride. He ignores the taunts. He stood up for what was important to him in the troubles, mobilising the Olympians against the Titans, and he continues to fight for what he thinks is right. He’s a cantankerous old blighter and falls out with everyone. Mum put up with his indiscretions for years, but him hitting the ozone was the last straw. If only he could get his feet back on the ground, she’d have him back in an instant.
‘Ozone gives you a feeling of inner peace and tranquillity and in no time, you’re a junky and your life falls apart. It was the downfall of the Titans. It was why they wanted Earth so bad.’
‘Is there a clinic he can go to?’ asked Emily. ‘Like Betty Ford for aliens.’
‘No, you can’t detox from Ozone. The only way out is to have dreams, to have a goal in life that you’re striving for, then the urge just goes away. The trouble is that anodes are practical creatures. We organise, we react to situations, we even plan a little, but we don’t have dreams we strive for, like you teroids. That is why Ozone is such a scrooge.’
Azziz put his head in his hands, ‘Enough talk of family, let’s kick the ball around.’
With a click of their fingers, Azziz and Jesus changed back to anode form. ‘It’s more comfortable like this,’ he said, and picking up the ball, spun it on one finger then gave it a mighty kick up the beach. It bounced a couple of times then got caught in the waves. Emily chased them up the beach, kicking and splashing all the way along to the stream mouth where they sat on the rocks to get their breath back.
‘Great surf,’ said Jesus, looking at the waves peeling cleanly along the sandbar.
‘Do you like Camillo?’ asked Emily.
‘Yes, it’s lovely, probably the best asteroid I’ve seen.’
‘Would you like or live here?’
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‘Love to,’ they both said together.
‘I’ll have to ask Zeus,’
‘It would be diplomatic, but you really don’t have to. If it’s your asteroid, you’re the gatekeeper,’ said Azziz.
‘You mean that I can have anyone I like live here?’
‘Yes, but take care. You only met us two hours ago and you’re inviting us to live here already. We could be nasty, mean, horrible aliens that eat your lettuces then steal your knickers from the clothes line and run around with them on our heads.’
‘I don’t wear knickers anymore,’ said Emily laughing.
‘I really don’t want to know.’ said Azziz. ‘But do you see what we’re saying? Anyone you let in will make a big difference to your life in one way or another, so you need to be careful.
They were right. ‘I will be careful, but I like you guys. You’re fun! Let me ask Zeus.’
Emily concentrated really hard and tried to imagine that she was telephoning Zeus.
‘Yes Emily,’ said Zeus’s resonant voice.
‘Will it be okay if Jesus and Azziz stay on Camillo?’
‘Are they back? No…’ there was silence for a few seconds. ‘No, no, no…I feel like I’m your dad and I’m worried that they might…have an influence on you….’
He went quiet again.
‘Well yes,’ he continued. ‘I suppose so. They can stay, better the devil you know, than not!’
‘Thanks Zeus, see you soon!’
‘Yes, he said, yes!’
‘We heard, you really must learn to think quietly. Now half the solar system knows that we’re here. We prefer to keep a low profile,’ said Jesus.
‘Will you build a house?’ ask Emily.
‘Anodes don’t live in houses. They’re a waste of time and resources.’
‘No houses?’
‘No,’ continued Azziz, ‘but having lived on Earth, both of us have a taste for teroid things: Hawaiian shirts, espresso, women and houses! Let’s find a good spot.’
Just behind where they were sitting there was a low hillock that was the perfect site for their cottage; high enough that it would be clear of the water if the stream flooded but still right by the beach. They planned a simple little cottage like Emily’s, to be built with stones from the stream so it would blend in with the landscape.
‘Em, can we call you Em?’ asked Azziz.
‘Of course, everyone calls me that at home.’
‘Em, we’re off to a soccer match later. Would you like to come?’
‘Oh yes!’ said Emily. ‘I love soccer.’
Azziz was quiet for a moment, while he made arrangements then said, ‘Okay, we’ll come along after lunch so we can have a kick around before we go.’
‘See you then,’ said Emily and kicked the ball back along the beach, singing to herself.